Arun Shourie, a noted Journalist, Activist, Scholar and Columnist is the author of several books, several of them on a diverse range of subjects related to his journalistic interests, including corruption and brilliant exposé of the Indian Communist party's long-standing anti-national policies.

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Thursday, July 9, 2015

The government and the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) seem to be unperturbed over the controversies on the unexpected removal of statistician Bimal Roy as the Director of the Kolkata-based academic institute.

Defending the decision to remove the Padma Shri award winner Roy from the post, ISI Chairman and senior BJP leader Arun Shourie said the government had no option before it.

Shourie told BusinessLine that there is nothing wrong in Roy’s removal and the decision was taken in the best interest of ISI. “The government had no option but to use the powers it had under the ISI Act. He (Roy) created a situation which would have paralysed the institution and vitiated the atmosphere. All the facts, circumstances and the law have been set out in the records of the Institute and has been furnished to the Government,” Shourie said taking “full responsibility” for the step which has been taken.

Indications are there that a high-level team of the Ministry for Statistics and Programme Implementation is likely to visit Kolkata soon to probe the allegations against Roy.

The Ministry order removing Roy had said that it has information on “a number of general and specific matters of financial and administrative irregularities”.

The government also cited Section 11 and 12 of the Indian Statistical Act to justify its Act. A source who is aware of the developments in the ISI said Roy declined to sign in the order of appointment of his predecessor despite directions from the governing council.

“He delayed the appointment of the director. He leaked out to the media the minutes of the internal proceedings of the council,” the source said.

Former Union Minister Arun Shourie on Friday said excellence is under assault due to vote bank politics.“Standards are dismissed as a conspiracy of the rich and well-connected to keep the poor down,” he said, participating in the Indian Institute of Science’s Alumni Global Conference. He said there is a dire need for at least the top 20 institutions of excellence in India to have a close interaction among themselves to learn from one another.

Referring to the trend of higher learning institutions showing eagerness to sign MoUs for research collaborations with foreign institutions while ignoring reputed ones within the country, he suggested that such collaborations should be established with other institutions within the country.Mr. Shourie said it was a matter of concern that the country did not have biographies of famous scientists like Satish Dhawan despite them being h...